Foundation Skills Assessment 2010

The BCTF’s campaign against the overuse and misuse of standardized testing is set to resume with an effort to inform parents and the larger public of the negative aspects of the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA), the Ministry-mandated tests given to Grade 4 and 7 students in reading comprehension, writing, and numeracy.

The window for the administration of these tests has been set wider than in previous years, increasing the potential for these tests to disrupt the regular pace of teaching and learning in the school.  FSA results do not count toward students’ marks, nor do the results support student learning in any meaningful way, but they do take large amount of classroom time.

So far, the government has been unwilling to yield to calls from the BCTF to discontinue its annual exercise in standardized testing, nor have they been open to the advice of teachers that the tests be set aside altogether, or administered on a random-sampling basis. There are good reasons why government should act on this advice.  Changes to the FSA to allow for random-sampling would be much less expensive, and potentially more valid than the current census-based approach. It’s also an approach that has worked well in the past, as participants in the Provincial Learning Assessment Program will attest.

The issue of the overuse and misuse of standardized testing is one which deserves the full attention of teachers, no just those teaching grades 4 and 7.  There is not subject or grade level where some kind of standardized testing instrument might be misused or misapplied. Ask colleagues who teach provincially examinable subjects, commencing in grade 10.

The truth is, teachers acknowledge the importance of tests; teachers create, administer and  use tests to evaluate student learning all the time. We know how to use tests appropriately, both as a diagnostic tool (prior to teaching, to determine what needs to be learned), and as an evaluative instrument (to be used after teaching, to confirm what has been learned). And teachers know how to combine test results with other evaluative means such as portfolio, and other qualitative  measures to provide a fuller, more accurate view of a student’s learning.

Delta Teachers' Association
210 - 5000 Bridge Street, Delta, BC V4K 2K4
604 946 0391

email - deltateachers@telus.net